Tuesday, March 29, 2011

When I began this course of Spirit-Quest, I never dreamed it would be so comprehensive. I am in awe of all the tools and information that are now at my disposal, that I never even considered before. I never thought of setting any spiritual goals. I was in this just to learn. I not only set spiritual goals, but I actually realized them. I can honestly say, that because I took this course, I have become a better person. I learned more about forgiveness, and how important it is. I had not considered that by not giving forgiveness and holding on to a problem area, I was making myself sick. I now give forgiveness freely. My meditation is now deeper and more open than ever. I love the ideas of a “Control Center”, and “viewing screen.”

I had an astrology reading several years ago, and it was suggested that I try “soul paintings.” At the time, I had no clue what they were. A “soul painting” is a message for a person from their angels and/or spirit guides. I was taught how to tune in, and with the guidance of spirit guides and angels, put onto paper the picture I saw in my head. The guides and angels then channeled through me writing to describe the pictures.

Since taking this course, my pictures have changed. They are much deeper, both in the paintings and in the writings. Other people have noticed it also. I don’t have to “work at them” any more. I also have a feel for numbers, and numerology. Many times the colors and numbers that come through in my paintings have significance for the person being read.

When you are engaged in this type of work, it is especially important to be grounded. Through this course, I learned more ways to stay deeply grounded. I love the concept of blowing up your grounding cord and roses and creating new ones, and thereby staying in the present. And who can live without that wonderful Golden Sun? I thank you for all the many gifts and blessings that I received while taking this course, and plan to take more courses through ULC in the future.

The ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials. I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

I've been working on the Affirmation techniques in Lesson 16. Rather then being about telling yourself what you want to hear it is about what our instructor mentions, a change in habit and intention. You are literally changing your intent vocabulary. I find I am thinking the changes first almost subconsciously. Then they seem to move up to the front of my mind. This interestingly enough is happening in off times. In other words this is outside of conversation or communication. An example was the other night. Verbiage change scenarios began wandering through my head in my half sleep, before I was out for the night. No thought of the subject was consciously there as I prepared to go to bed. Very unexpected. This as all of us are learning will be continual process.

Another way to make affirmative change is to pose a question that leads to a positive presentation of what you want to say. For example, if we were to be really unhappy with someone s actions, before this lesson we might say something like

I am not happy with you.

You can ask

Are you aware that I am unhappy about what you did?

This does not change the fact that you are unhappy. What it does do is convey more clearly what is going on so that the other person can begin to absorb and use the information instead of only feeling bad or even attacked.

Granted this also extends the subject past ones self out to others. This would seem to be a natural progression however. I am looking forward to reading others experiences with this.

The ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials. I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

Friday, March 18, 2011

At the start of the Spirit Quest course I was an angry man with negative influence everywhere. It seemed to me like I was a puppet being controlled by everything about me. In taking this course and practicing the lessons I have come to know that I attracted these negative influences into my life and have allowed the circumstances around me to dictate how I would feel and behave. I am no longer the angry man I was. I am no longer feeling sorry for myself that I have not received what I thought I deserved.

There are four tools that I have found most helpful in this transformation of self. I love the view screen. On it I can see the truth that I need to see for a more peaceful and productive life. The grounding cord keeps me brings me a balance to my life that I did not have before. The roses I absolutely love. Roses have been a constant theme in my life. I especially like to blow things up in roses. Once I have completely blown something or someone up my anger is gone. The first time I blew someone up on the spot the results were very dramatic. A man was trying to rob me and ended up leaving without any harm being done. The sticky roses work really well with me when I am not sure what is bothering me.

The most difficult tool for me was the Golden Sun. For several months I had to look at something gold to keep the color in my mind. I do not have it down completely yet, but I can now at least see the color correctly without have to look at a piece of gold first. To me this Golden Sun feels like the Christ in me healing all of my hurts. I like to let it follow its own course through my body. It knows better than I do what needs this healing. I can watch it on my view screen as it travels through me. Sometimes it likes to wander through my life and clean out rooms in my head that have accumulated trash.

Thank you very much for offering this course and for all of the wonderful lessons.

The ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials. I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

So the course is finished and the quest is just begun. In this one course I have found the answers to several questions that have plagued me for ages. The first being, how big of a spirit am I? The answer is, that I am boundless. The only limits imposed on me come from the agreements that I make. The decisions that I make as a being have only to do with what I have learned as a spirit. I as spirit, am not bound by the laws of the physical world. This is not just a platitude. I have investigated many "isms" in my life and nowhere have I found the keys that have been given me on this course. Just by practicing a few of the precepts, I have seen things that have been blocking me for my entire life just blown away. Instead of barriers, I am finding opportunities every day.

These include, Financial Opportunities as well as personal. I have found that my friendships are deeper and communication is much easier. My ability to see another's point of view has grown exponentially. As a matter of fact, friends at work call me "the defender" because I am always able to see the good in almost everyone. This is because I always look for the spirit instead of just looking at the physical person. This way, I also know who I can trust. I have been able to open myself to being loved and to be able to love others. This is a problem that has truly been with me my entire life. I have been able to root out the decisions that caused them and been able to banish them. Using the Roses to bring in the good and destroy the bad is nothing less than inspired. Amy, I have no idea how you discovered this but I am here to tell you that it works! Thanks to Rev. Amy Long and the Universal Life Church Seminary, my life is on a whole new track.

If anyone has not taken this course I would urge them to do it right away. Finally, I would like to say that through this course, I have discovered that God truly created me in His image. I am on to the next course.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Spirit Quest has been an informative and excellent lesson in taking charge of my life. It is well written and comfortable to learn. Of all the lessons, the most meaningful to me were the basic meditation techniques-especially the grounding exercises. I enjoyed learning how to center myself, cleanse negative energy and practice awareness and mindfulness.

Many years ago I learned meditation as a means of managing migraine headaches. Slowly, with time I have forgotten about daily practice because I got caught up in the craziness of life. Renewing this practice has allowed me to slow down and stay present. It has taught me to free up personal energy for healing and wholeness. I no longer take on negative energy from others and if I inadvertently let some in I know how to handle it. This is the miracle I have created for myself. The change is extremely positive and uplifting. At any time I can ground, center, breathe and heal.

The lessons on getting unstuck were also meaningful to me. Throughout life I have been aware of getting stuck on things and of how this has kept me focused on the past. Moving forward became difficult often resulting in problems. Some of the tools came more naturally than others. The Body of Glass tool was very difficult at first but with practice I am seeing small improvement. Since I love centering neutrality was one of my favorite lessons. Clearly seeing a situation makes the choices about that situation much more available. I like picturing a movie screen while sitting in a nice comfy chair. This is a very safe environment from which to evaluate a situation and choose a course of action.

Another area that was meaningful to me was the lesson on time. I have done some therapeutic work with somatic counseling to look at the trauma of a serious car accident. Although I didn’t know it at the time I was using the tools of neutrality and time to recover from this trauma. Most of my time and energy was spent in the past still involved in the accident. The anxiety was incredible and I was stuck beyond belief. Through hypnosis, meditation and learning balance I was able to release some of that negative energy and move more freely in the present. This course has reminded me of the tune-ups I must continue to do to keep from getting stuck again.

Above all I have learned that spirituality is fluid. This course has given me the tools to continue healthy growth, to identify my needs and to adjust my attitude when needed. I learned some of these tools once, misplaced them and now have them again. Thank you Spirit Quest.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials. I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

When I began this Spirit Quest course I did not know what to expect. It seemed like it was so long. As each lesson appeared in my in-box I found my self more and more excited by this course. It flowed very easily together. It was definitely a beginner’s course, but even the more advanced student takes something from this class if it is just another perspective of what they already know.

The meditation part of the course took a few weeks to build upon itself, but I liked the imagery she used for the meditation. I have used roses for protection before, but not in this way. I found it very helpful. Also the clearing out of other people’s energy and building up your own were invaluable. I never realized before that other people’s energy was so detrimental. Yes, it is nice in the beginning to share someone else’s energy, but after the initial glow wears off it is just annoying.

I have found, that with each new lesson I was working on, someone in my life could have used the information that I had just acquired. A girlfriend of mine was holding on to her hurt and anger about her son. We talked about forgiveness, but she was just not ready to let go and reach that state. There is another person that I work with her whole outlook on life is just very negative. Everything she says is very pessimistic. One day I was chatting with her about this in a round about way and she admitted that she knows she is very negative. I suggested trying to find other words that are more positive, but she was not quite ready to do that yet.

Neither of those previously mentioned were ready to make changes so I released them with the seeds of change planted. The only person I can truly change is myself. I have worked hard on being positive and sending out only the positive messages. This does not mean I have not slipped. Driving is the hard part for me. I find other drivers can irritate me. I will continue to work on this probably for the rest of my life or until I cannot drive anymore.

I have also sent out balloons with what I want and used positive affirmations. One time I was telling myself that whenever I buy lottery tickets I win money. I think I did that about fifty times before I got to the store and bought a few. I bought two scratch tickets and one lotto ticket. One of the scratch tickets was a $25 winner. I have also found myself popping balloons before they leave since some of the things I was thinking about were not what I wanted to bring into my life. I would pop them before they were released into the universe.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this class and I would suggest that everyone should take it. By the end of the class I found myself missing receiving the weekly discourse. I looked forward to it after awhile. I know I will take some of these tools with me throughout the rest of this life and will share what I have learned with others. Thank you for this experience.

The ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials. I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.